Wirehead Studios

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/09/22...reut/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/09/22/arctic.ice.reut/index.html)

While some of this is ludicrous, what do you think of this "current event"?

I'll start out saying the north pole can melt and nothing will happen.

If you don't believe me, fill a glass with water, dump in a bunch of icecubes, and just see if the water level rises as they melt.

I don't know the specifics off the top of my head, but the real damage (ignoring penguins and polar bears and such) from the ice caps melting would have to do with something like it affecting climates and lowering the temperature of the ocean or some such.

However, I go a bit beyond you and I'll just say that there may be "global warming", but I'm not convinced it's man's fault. Sure researchers talk about trends being disrupted that are evident over hundreds of years, but for all we know, this could be part of a trend that easily stretches hundreds of thousands of years. Even if it actually is getting warmer, I'm sure it's just part of a larger cycle (multiple past Ice Ages, anyone?).

Well, you must remember that volumetric displacement is fine in what you're saying, so long as the ice is actually IN the water.  If it's above the ocean and on the surface then it will displace by exactly its volume.  Slightly less once it melts since ice is crystaline and has more volume when water frozen.  Doomsday scenarios like some predict?  Hardly.  Sure, weather patterns change, but does anyone expect the weather to follow a nice, stable pattern for centuries?

The Earth goes through climate changes all the time.  Most of this "global warming" bit is political and unfounded.  I do agree that humanity needs to clean up its act, stop burning forests, stop relying on oil for fuel, and stop billowing toxic fumes from industry into the air and water, but that's not going to happen overnight, and even if things get a bit more toasty doesn't mean that man is causing it.  The earth was MUCH hotter back when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and you've dug up some of their bones as far as Antarctica.

Localized heat problems are more likely to be problematic.  It's no strange fact that the woods and forests are cooler while cities often get hot enough to kill people without air conditioning.  If people want a cooler place to live, I have a rather simplistic, but effective suggestion.  Plant a lot more trees, and build a lot fewer parkinglots and cities.  Trees soak up CO2 and release oxygen.  Trees also control evaporative moisture, absorb thermal energy from the sun, and are habitat to many species of birds, and mammals too.  What does concrete do?  Shopping malls and restaurants might be fine and good, but every mile of paved concrete or asphalt is a mile of dead ground that's nothing more than an oven.  Personally I like it hot, but I like trees too.

There are many theories about this global warming however buring all this oil, cars, industries is not good in anyway IF those gases doesnt  create a global warming, they are still bad for our health. but we just can't stop driving cars, nor stop using oil.

Not too long ago i saw a program about this dude that discoverd that the sun indeed as a great affect of the earths temperature, for the momment the sun is in an active cycle and of course that will affect earth.btw this is one of the theories i believe in.

there also was something about cosmic radiation affecting the clouds on earth. the more radiation there will be less clouds that will reflect the sun. Had something todo with a field emitting from the sun during activity/low activity ,bouncing of that cosmic radiation. im not sure about the last one.

hmm guess i got off topic there.

Sounds on topic to me.  We're talking about global warming, right?

The sun HAS been very active of late.  I check in on NASA's EIT array and Lasco satelites every so often, and it's been severe activity for the last 2 or 3 years.  X-class flares, sunspots the size of Saturn, and coronal mass ejections galore.  What I also find amusing is the cause of the hole in the ozone layer supposedly being CFC gasses, considering that the hole is at the south pole and as far away from industry as possible.  The Sun throws off so many charged particles in a coronal mass ejection that a blast from one of one of those or a strong solar wind stream from a coronal hole can cause the auroras to light up like Edison flying a kite in a rainstorm.  They've been pushed farther away from the poles than I've seen in many years, far enough south that people can see them in Texas during the summer.  Has anyone stopped to consider that the reason there is a hole at only one pole on the earth may have to do with a charged particle reaction, where particles of one polarity might congregate at one pole and not the other?  Has anyone done any plasma physics research into the effects of protonic ionization on ozone?  It would seem logical, wouldn't it?

Proof the sun affects global temperatures is literally as simple as day and night.  Needs no fancy physics there.  You really notice this in the desert.  It gets damned cold at night without that sun!

/me gets out microwave and pyrex bowl and begins conducting plasma experiments

oh wait :P

but yeah, for the most part, i think this global warming fear is mostly unfounded.  yes, we should stop deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, and the dumping of toxic chemicals into the air, land, and water.  but i don't think mankind is wholly or even mostly responsible for the warming trend our planet has been experiencing.

This vaguely reminds me of a conversation I took part in during 9th grade world geography, when this girl became convinced the solution to global warming was to punch a second hole in the ozone layer (at the north pole), and then the solar winds would blow through the two holes and cool the earth off...

That conversation did, however, provide me with an absolutely hilarious mental image to amuse myself with whenever I'm bored.

it where the aliens I tell ya , the aliens .
why dont ya listen to me ??
the aliens are doing it to us .

No Games.  If it were aliens you'd be dead. :D

me points out hes an alien himself  :rolleyes:

/me grabs a shotgun  :ph34r: